There seems to be a bit of a backlash against blog meetups. Alex White says the idea of meeting internet people in meatspace is worrying:
While I enjoy reading what others have got to say, I can’t really say the idea of meeting internet-strangers in a bar and talking “blogtalk” excites me. I’d rather not have my spleen stolen and sold at a European organ-auctionhouse thank you very much.
I’ve met quite a few bloggers — Jason Soon, Mark Gallagher, Chris Sheil and Alan Anderson from interstate, and quite a few Perth bloggers, too. I still have my spleen, but I’ve also made some interesting acquaintances and friends.
I suspect Alex’s real complaint is this:
I’m probably not the kind of bloke intended as the target for a Grogblogging invite (what with this being a small blog and all).
To which I say: nonsense! The whole point of meetup events is to get everyone involved together in one place. To me, it’s about rejecting the A-List elitism of the blogosphere — I read a whole lot of small blogs, and many of them are far more interesting because I now know the people behind them.
But on that subject, Liam Hogan’s tongue-in-cheek criticism of the recent Sydney event raises a good point:
You expect to be taken seriously as a medium, but you exclude from your ranks all those who are not able to come out on a particular night. You make your organising of networking a once-off rather than a regular exercise of power sharing.
Meetups work best if they’re regular. People can turn up when they can make it, and skip it when they can’t. Our Perth Weblogger Meetup Group has about fifty members, and about a dozen people turn up from month to month, though it’s never the same dozen.
It also makes it easier to organise one-off special events. People don’t get left off invitation lists, because anyone can join the group and every member gets the invitations. Everyone — including (especially) Alex White and other “small” bloggers — should join their Meetup group, and turn up for a chat with other bloggers every now and then.
And speaking of special meetup events, don’t forget we’re going bowling tonight.
Update: The dickheads who told Dreadnought not to bother organising a Melbourne meet can get stuffed. Good on Agent FareEvader for pressing ahead.